Winter Storms 2016 Snowpocalypse et al

[Screamapillar]

The Thundersnow this morning was pretty cool. And LOUD! I'm such a rube that I thought it was a tree falling on the roof at first. 

[apandaaries]

Thundersnow sounds ridiculously amazing!  I'm jealous.

[SledCat]

I just saw the headline on CNN... "This is just the start". Stay warm and safe, all.

[Guest]

Anyone want to box up some snow and send it to western NY?  Usually we get about 60" a year in my area, but we've hardly gotten any so far.  It's depressing and weird.  I grew up in NYC and I kind of miss the big dramatic dump-two-feet-of-snow nor'easters.  It was exciting!  Stay safe, everyone, and I hope the power stays on.

[samira_catlover]

AAH, stand by for major UPS shipments! You can have EVERYTHING we have, with my blessings.

On a serious note: we're south of DC.  MAJORLY nasty.  Right now I am hearing sleet, mixed with snow, outside my (blessedly warm) house in Southern Maryland.

Can we get a FJ prayer chain set up?  [YES, I AM COMPLETELY AND DEADLY SERIOUS HERE, and this is no time to argue about personal ideologies/mindsets.] I'm thinking...

• Essential workers can get through to their jobs, and travel in safety.
• That affected areas will have few/no fires and/or medical disasters.
• That every living thing that lives outside--human, bird, cat/dog/opossum/whatever, finds a nice sheltered space with warmth, and can get out for food (which will be available, thanks to a loving deity/WHATEVER).

This is a dangerous, killer storm. No, I am NOT exaggerating.  ANYBODY, everybody, with spare energy, love, hope, good wishes, whatever: PLEASE HELP!

[sparkles]

Photo courtesy of our local paper

 

[sawasdee]

16 minutes ago, sparkles said:

Photo courtesy of our local paper

 

I just saw swarms of @VelociRapture's avatar swooping overhead.......

[catlady]

6 hours ago, AbandonAllHope said:

Anyone want to box up some snow and send it to western NY?  Usually we get about 60" a year in my area, but we've hardly gotten any so far.  It's depressing and weird.  I grew up in NYC and I kind of miss the big dramatic dump-two-feet-of-snow nor'easters.  It was exciting!  Stay safe, everyone, and I hope the power stays on.

A.A.H., you can send away for all the snow you like, but keep it away from north Cheektowaga and we'll all be happy (haha!).  Today we're supposed to be mostly cloudy and 25F; I'll take it......   Here's my dog from last winter:  (that fence is three feet high)

[Toothfairy]

I hate this weather

[RosyDaisy]

The part of Alabama where I live got just a dusting of snow. However, we had a little freezing rain befor that. Black ice! One car skidded into a ditch in front of my house. It was my young cousin! She's ok, but staying with us until the roads clear. A tow truck got the car out of the ditch. Remarkably, her car only had a few scratches.

Anyway, stay safe and warm, y'all.

[RosyDaisy]

Homemade hot chocolate:

Milk

Sugar

Cocoa powder

Mix on stove until hot

Place some mineature marshmallows in a mug

Pour hot chocolate in mug.

The exact amount of ingredients depends on taste.

[Season of life...]

I'm an AZ native; I've been in snow once or twice, but had to seek it out. Snow has always seemed rather exotic to me. In my imagination I tend to picture myself with cocoa near a crackling fire with easy listening music playing in the background (there's always a saxophone--no idea why) as the snow gently falls into picturesque drifts, highlighted by the light of a full moon. 

I do know winter isn't really like this, but my longing for seasons tends to trump logic . Hearing about storms on the news in the abstract is one thing, reading about personal experiences is quite another. I forget winter can cause such harm. 

@samira_catlover, I'm truly sending love, hope and good wishes that all will be well for those affected by this storm, be they two, four or more legged. Be safe and take care, everyone.

[VelociRapture]

3 hours ago, sawasdee said:

I just saw swarms of @VelociRapture's avatar swooping overhead.......

Sorry guys! My Lizard Army got loose again. I'm calling Godzilla now to see if he can help round them up - that sounds like a good idea right?! 

[Eater of Worlds]

This storm is messing everyone up.  VA had nearly 800 car accidents on Wed night from the start of the storm.  I'm not in VA but I have at least 8 inches of snow so far.  Another 20 to go.  My biggest concern is I have meds to pick up on Monday that I can die without, and I will probably have to call the county gov to come and specifically plow me out.  Otherwise we won't get plowed until Wed at best.

 

My husband just had to dig trenches so the dogs would do their business.  I don't have tiny dogs, one is a little under two feet tall at the shoulder and the other is a little over 2 feet.  Then the bigger dog jumped out of the trench to poop, when he wouldn't go into the snow in the first place.  The snow is closer to a foot, and we couldn't get out our front door because there's a screen door that couldn't push the snow away.

[morri]

we had snow and cold fowr a week or 2 no storms though. unfortunately it us thawing now at 7 deg C,...

[bashfulpixie]

1 hour ago, Season of life... said:

I'm an AZ native; I've been in snow once or twice, but had to seek it out. Snow has always seemed rather exotic to me. In my imagination I tend to picture myself with cocoa near a crackling fire with easy listening music playing in the background (there's always a saxophone--no idea why) as the snow gently falls into picturesque drifts, highlighted by the light of a full moon. 

I do know winter isn't really like this, but my longing for seasons tends to trump logic . Hearing about storms on the news in the abstract is one thing, reading about personal experiences is quite another. I forget winter can cause such harm. 

@samira_catlover, I'm truly sending love, hope and good wishes that all will be well for those affected by this storm, be they two, four or more legged. Be safe and take care, everyone.

As a Floridian, I'm right there with you.  For literally the entire second half of Sept and most of Oct my Time-Hop was littered with posts about wanting seasons. But this?  Way too much for my thin blood.

[MayMay1123]

we are at 17 inches, supposed to get another 8 by noon, and then blizzard conditions until midnight. who knows what our total will be.

[Grimalkin]

@PennySycamore I never heard of a dog that didn't love snow! My Cav wants to be out nonstop. We had a windchill of 19 below 0 last week and my dog wanted to walk, wouldn't leave me alone until I walked him. I took him to a trail and he couldn't get enough of it.

     

      It might be too late to mention this, but to add to the list of tips, if you must park outside, pull your wiper blades off your window so they don't stick to the ice.

    Brooms work really well at getting snow off your car, if you leave too much on the top of your car, sometimes, when you stop at a stoplight all the snow slides off onto your windshield, if its icy its loud and sounds scary!

        Old credit card or plastic cards make good ice scrapers in a pinch.

    I hope you all are safe. I hope you experience the good stuff about snow too. Like driving down a road lined with trees covered in snow that is glittering in the sun, or the peacefulness of it falling down silently.

      If you don't have a sled, some substitutes are storage container lids, laundry baskets, vinyl outdoor cushions, large pieces of cardboard, and Jim Bob's election signs. 

     

[Guest]

4 hours ago, catlady said:

A.A.H., you can send away for all the snow you like, but keep it away from north Cheektowaga and we'll all be happy (haha!).  Today we're supposed to be mostly cloudy and 25F; I'll take it......   Here's my dog from last winter:  (that fence is three feet high)

Aww, he's like "what do you expect me to do out here?!?!  I remember that lake effect snow storm, didn't some areas get like 6 feet?  Crazy.  We only got like an inch here in Livingston county that time.  I don't blame you for enjoying this winter after that.

[Eater of Worlds]

My dogs have about as much hair and fat as greyhounds do.  They feel the cold really more than a dog like yours that is furrier.  The dog i have that has less body fat an thinner hair actually tends to wear a sweater on the cold winter days  because otherwise he shivers all day.  He's skinny skinny, you can see his hip bones, 4 spinal bumps (seeing 3 is the usual limit you want to see on a dog, more means they are underweight)  and almost all his ribs.  He's got super low levels of body fat.  We'd like to feed him more, but once he's full, he's done.  if I give him a little too much food at one meal, he totally skips the next meal, eating less food overall.

He's not really fond of the cold.

[Arete]

Well, we have about 10 inches down right now, and it is blowing like crazy.  All state public transportation is suspended, but the state's 2 main north-south arteries, I-95 and the Parkway, are still open.  There are 100,000 people in southern NJ without power.

i have oxtails simmering for borscht and am about to start mixing meatballs to go in the oven.  Right now I am listening to a choir of Russian basso profundos sing "How Glorious Is The Lord In Zion".  Not a bad way to spend a winter's Saturday morning.

[Walking Cat Bed]

Well, SOMEONE has been begging to go outside. forever. So we let her out for about three entire minutes.

[Eater of Worlds]

AreteJo, no one ever makes borscht in this house.  That's blasphemy!  It's beet soup for winter, and cold beet soup for summer.

 I'm joking, sort of.  I come from a heritage that has deep hatred for Russia and what Russia (well, the Soviets) did to them.  The words in that language are a fairly direct translation, so I have a hard time thinking of barsciai as borscht.

[PennySycamore]

I posted last night that we had been without power for about 8 1/2 hours until about 9:30. I was glad that the power came on when it did because Sense and Sensibility was coming on TCM at 10.  I got to watch maybe 30 minutes before our cable went out!  I would have watched it on DVD if I could find my DVD of the film. The cable was back on right about noon and Ocean's 11 is on.

So no big complaints here.  We've got about 4 inches of snow and sleet, we have power and cable! and the dogs have been out though they aren't crazy about the snow.  My late terrier Lucy loved the snow, btw.  She would have eaten this up with a spoon!

[Guest]

12 hours ago, samira_catlover said:

AAH, stand by for major UPS shipments! You can have EVERYTHING we have, with my blessings.

Yay!  I'm so excited!  My UPS guy is going to hate me more than he already does, though.  Seriously, though I hope everyone and everything in the path of this storm stays safe and warm, and I'm sending positive thoughts your way.

3 hours ago, MayMay1123 said:

we are at 17 inches, supposed to get another 8 by noon, and then blizzard conditions until midnight. who knows what our total will be.

Wow, I was in Philadelphia/Southern NJ earlier in the week.  I was supposed to stay until tomorrow but I left yesterday morning.  It seems like that area is really getting slammed.  Stay safe and warm!